Roy Hodgson gave a clear indication on Wednesday that he was preparing to name
an unchanged team for England’s Group D match against Sweden on Friday.

The England manager took aside the 11 players who started against France in Monday’s opening game of the sides' Euro 2012 campaign, which ended in a 1-1 draw, at the end of Wednesday’s training session.

Ashley Cole again sat out most of the session at England’s Hutnik training base although that is not unusual after games as he manages a chronic ankle problem - he usually doesn’t train for two days after a game - while Martin Kelly continued to be absent as he is still suffering from a virus.

Ashley Young, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Joleon Lescott and James Milner also took only a limited part in training in what was a shortened session after Tuesday’s day of recovery.

Hodgson said later: “As yet we haven’t picked the team. I'm not prepared to say at this stage whether there will be changes or no changes. But there won’t be wholesale changes. We don’t have any injuries or problems and the players who did well against France are all hoping to play again on Friday.”

Hodgson also acknowledged that England have “missed” the suspended Wayne Rooney who can return from a two-match ban for the final group match against Ukraine.

“We’ve missed him, there is no question about that,” he said. “When you talk about Sweden, you talk a lot about Zlatan Ibrahimovic and how important he is and how he can decide a game, how his individual ability can make an enormous difference - especially to a team which is well-organised and hard-working.

“We’ve got one of them in our squad too. His name is Wayne Rooney and he is a world-class player. There is no doubt that when we get him on the field we’ll be a much stronger, more potent attacking force.”

England fly out to Kiev on Thursday ahead of the match, which kicks off after the other Group D game between France and Ukraine in Donetsk has ended.

On Thursday the players’ partners flew into Krakow as the squad were given the afternoon and evening off. Rooney’s wife, Coleen, Steven Gerrard’s wife, Alex, and Toni Terry, the wife of John Terry, were among those who arrived in Poland. Despite the steady rain in Krakow, the players and their partners spent the afternoon wandering around the city.